Tech in the Trenches

On profanity

On May 24, 2012

Profanity on the web exists. People use it. Get used to it. If you don’t like it, don’t read it. If you read a writer who uses it, stop reading them. If you stumble across it on a normally curse-free site, it’s not the end of the world.

Profanity is out there

They are merely words and those words cannot hurt you. As the old nursery rhyme goes, sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me.¹

There is no point in hiding a naughty word behind an asterisk. You’re not fooling anyone. I agree with the advice doled out by Tom Borowski.

If you’re going to use expletives, don’t try to hide them. Just write them out in full or figure out a way to compose your sentence with a more sophisticated vocabulary. For fuck’s sake.

My stance on profanity in my writing

This got me to thinking about profanity and how I view and use it. I’ve always maintained a policy of not using profanity in my writing.² Whether it be a social network update, comments on a blog or writing I sign my name to and post on my own pages across the web, I don’t curse when I write.

It’s not because I’m opposed to it morally or ethically. I feel I can craft a better sentence without it. There are plenty of acronyms for increasing the impact of the statement I’m making without a curse word thrown into the mix.

I also do not curse in my writing because it’s a distraction and turns away readers. I don’t want someone to not read my words or ignore the point I am making because they hit a disagreeable word.

When I was writing and recording for Splintered Reality I made a point to never use curse words in my lyrics because I wanted to reach as many people with my words as I could. I don’t agree with censorship but the fact remains, if there is cursing, there is editing or censoring and I didn’t want my words to be changed so I wrote them without it.

It’s vital to remember in the age of a connected world, what you say online stays online. What you say will never go away. It’s being indexed, and relinked and quoted across the web with or without your knowledge.

Some people curse like sailors, others never so much as utter a rude word. The web is a huge place and filled with people at both ends of the spectrum and all along it.

But you just used a naughty word in this post

Just as I don’t agree with censorship, asterisks and clean edits of songs, I don’t agree with censoring someone if I quote them.

The F-word appears in this post. It appears in its full and unfiltered glory but as part of a quote. Sure, I could have omitted the last part of the quote and kept it out of this post, but I wanted to prove a point.

I do not write with curse words in my writing but I am not afraid to use them when quoting what others have said. Just as I want to be heard and read exactly as I intended, I want to give others the same courtesy.

Hypocrite

Is this hypocritical? Probably. However, this is my blog. This is my site. This is my space to write on the web that is an extension of myself. This is my front porch where I sit in my rocking chair and yell at you kids to keep off the grass.

As Jeffrey Zeldman wrote recently, This is my personal site. There are many like it, but this one is mine. He is talking about the design changes but the same idea applies to the content.

This is my site. I am not posting on a Facebook or Twitter. You’re most likely not going to haphazardly come across this post in a stream of updates unless you’re previously subscribed.

What about offline

Offline, I do curse when I speak sometimes. I’ve gone between never uttering a curse word to cursing like a pressman.³

My cursing comes and goes. A lot of it has to do with the people I’m around and how they speak. I don’t have any objections to being exposed to it but I also find it jarring in certain contexts.

My policy on cursing in writing is more concrete than my personal language. There is plenty of room for shades of gray and there is no clear-cut answer for me. Sometimes I curse, sometimes I don’t but I keep my writing clean. That’s what is important to me and that’s how I carry myself online and off.

Photo Credit

Yes, I realize that words can hurt but that’s another topic or another time. ↩
Yes, I know there’s a naughty word in the last paragraph but I’m getting to that. ↩
If you’d ever spent any time working for a printing company, you’d understand. ↩

Healthcare Blue Book

By Carl

On May 23, 2012

In Links and Quotes

Healthcare Blue Book
Find fair prices for surgery, hospital stays, doctor visits, and medical tests, based on the average fee that providers in your area accept as payment from insurers. Healthcare Blue Book also provides money-saving tips for each procedure and a pricing agreement that makes it easier to negotiate with out-of-network providers.

I never knew such a thing existed. Had I know it a couple of months ago I could have saved 2/3 the cost of my recent root canal. Spend a few minutes with this site and it will open your eyes to the costs of various procedures and give you an idea if you’re being overcharged.

via Wisebread

On Belay

By Carl

On May 21, 2012

In Introspection

Who are your belayers?

When I was 40 feet in the air on a pole, I knew there was a team of four people who had my back. They are my support. They held the ropes to catch me if I fell. They are my belayers.

They are the support network They allowed me to climb higher and work harder than I could have on my own. I knew, without a doubt, even if I fell they would catch me.

Those four people took away my fear of the task at hand. They took away my doubt because if I failed, they would catch me.

They are my safety net.

Who is your safety net in life? When you climb a little higher or make that leap of faith, who is there to catch you?

Internetizens

By Carl

On May 16, 2012

In Observations

Children are citizens of the internet. Adults are merely tourists.

I question every time I read about some valiant efforts adults are making to think of the children when it comes to the internet.

Children are citizens of the internet. They are growing up with it as a part of their lives. They were not introduced to it late into their teens, adulthood or in their senior years. The internet is as much a part of their lives as the television or radio was to the lives of older generations.

Children are aware of the privacy implications of sharing things on social networks. This doesn’t mean children don’t need to be made aware of the dangers of online predators or cyber bullying. However, as savvy as the normal parent my be, children are going to become more fluent in the language of the internet as time goes on.

They have grown up with it and have an understand which starts at an early age. Even if your children aren’t allowed to browse the web, they likely enjoy the benefits of Netflix, Hulu, iTunes and other providers of entertainment.

I am a child of a time before home video game consoles. When I was younger, you had to visit an arcade to play games at the expense of piles of jingling quarters.

When video games came out, I was still quite young and I grew up with them so I had a clear understanding and appreciation for them. I spoke their language and they spoke to me. I spent many, many hours playing and perfecting my abilities.

I understood how they had to be connected to a TV, how to troubleshoot them when problems arose. I understood how to control them and how to play the games.

There was a time before television, and especially color television was in homes across the country. There was a time before the radio. There were always times before technologies we take for granted today.

When the television was delivered and setup, there was a learning curve to understanding how to get the set connected and working. There was a skill set involved in figuring out why it wasn’t working and what could be done to make it work.

Each technology has its own language which must be learned and mastered.

How to spot a scam

By Carl

On May 9, 2012

In Observations

With Skype allowing calls to outside lines, scammers can call anyone they want from anywhere they want for pennies and attempt to scam people out of their hard-earned money. Everyone wants to win big money and prizes but there are certain things to look for when you think you’re being scammed.

What contest did you win?

The caller will say you’ve won a contest. What contest exactly? That’s where the deception begins.

The caller will give a vague answer such as “it was a drawing in a big retailer like Best Buy or Kmart” or something like “it was a sweepstakes in your area.” The answer is always very vague.

If you had won something, the caller would identify the contest and who was hosting it. For example, Tigerdirect holds giveaways for computer equipment. Upon winning, someone from Tigerdirect would call, identify themselves and say what you had won.

Are you eligible?

The caller will try to talk to anyone who will pickup the phone. If the caller at any point tells you you’ve not eligible to win a prize due to location, age or any other reason, this is a scam.

If you had won, the caller would have already checked your eligibility. The company holding a giveaway would not waste time calling someone to give them a prize they could not win. If you’re not eligible to win, the caller would not ask for another person in the house who did meet the requirement. For example, if you had to be 25 or older to win, the caller would not speak to someone under 25 because they are ineligible to win.

Pick your prize from this great list!

If you won a prize, the caller would already know what prize you won and be calling to ask you to claim it. The caller would never give you a list of prizes. For instance, if the caller says you’ve won either:

A New Car
$25,000 Cash
32″ LCD TV
A Cruise
You are being scammed.

If you had won, the caller would be notifying you of the exact prize you won and making arrangements to verify your identity, and information you submitted when entering the contest. You will never be offered a choice of prizes.

Please go here to claim your prize.

If you caller is asking you to go to a hotel to claim your prize, you are being scammed.
If the caller says anything about a presentation or 60 or more minutes, you are being scammed.
If the caller cannot give details such as parking arrangements or specific directions to the venue they want you to go to, you are being scammed.

If you had actually won a contest, the prize would come to you. You will not need to meet them at a hotel in a city far away from where their caller ID claims they are. If on the off-chance you do need to meet them somewhere, it would be an official office, not a hotel. If you did need to go there, they would offer you directions and details. If the caller can’t tell you how the parking is at the venue they’re asking you to go to, the caller is not there and you don’t know who or what is waiting there for you.

Use your head

The best way to avoid being scammed is to use your head. We all want to believe we’ve won thousands of dollars, new cars and fabulous vacations but if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.

If you think you’re being scammed follow a couple of simple rules.

Do not give any personal information.
Ask detailed questions.
Ask for a number to call the person back, then try it.
Call the number you’re being called from after the call or from another phone.
Be smart, if you think you’re getting scammed, or have already given out information, collect as much as you can and contact your local law enforcement.
If it’s a company repeatedly calling you, contact the Better Business Bureau.